


Chapter 7: Something Stupid

by dc_comic_girl



Series: The Story of Mickey Milkovich [7]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Eventual Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Gallavich, M/M, POV Mickey, POV Mickey Milkovich, Protective Mickey Milkovich
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 17:54:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18878257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dc_comic_girl/pseuds/dc_comic_girl
Summary: Mickey gets a surprise visit while adjusting to life in juvie.





	Chapter 7: Something Stupid

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, sorry this took so long to post. I really wanted to post at least one chapter a week, but the best laid plans and all that. Last week was my birthday, which is historically not a great time for me, so it took longer to get this done than I expected. On top of that, it's not a long chapter, but I promise the next one will make up for it (in length at least). 
> 
> Anyway, enough excuses! Thanks to everyone who is continuing to read this story. This is a long weekend (in Canada) so I'm gonna try my damnedest to get at least one more chapter out before the end of Monday. Wish me luck!
> 
> Characters and dialog from the show don't belong to me. Please enjoy!!

For as long as Mickey could remember, his brothers had told him stories about juvie.

Stories of gang fights and fag bashing and fucking with guards. Stories of running the show and earning respect. Stories that scared him when he was a kid and excited him as he got older.

What the stories failed to mention was just how fuckin’ _boring_ juvie was.

Every day, the same fuckin’ routine: wake up, go to breakfast, go outside, sit in your cell, go to supper, go to bed, repeat. It was enough to drive a guy nuts, and it had only been a week.

What was worse, it was nearly impossible to get any respect while you were walking around like some gimp on crutches because a pedo fag shot you for fuckin’ the kid he was suckin’ off. Of course, no one knew the real reason Kash had shot him, so the official story was that he was shot for taking a candy bar. Much cooler.

He had earned so little respect from his fellow inmates, in fact, that some Irish fucker actually tried to take his Jell-O at supper two days in a row.

And at the end of the day, it wasn’t the mundane schedule or the soft reputation that really pushed Mickey over the fucking edge.

It was the worry.

With nothing else to occupy his mind and no real control over his life on the outside, Mickey’s anxieties seemed to consume him. Did Gallagher get home okay after the shooting? Did he tell anyone what happened? Did Kash tell the cops? Would his father find out he had been fucking a guy? Mickey felt completely segregated from the life waiting for him outside of juvie, and it made him want to punch a wall. Repeatedly.

A day or two after the arrest, the cops had finally gotten around to letting him make a phone call. He gave them Mandy’s phone number, knowing that everyone else would probably just hang up. Their conversation had been brief and filled with half-hearted insults, but it had set his mind at ease. If something had happened to Ian, or if he had told anyone about what had happened, Mandy would have brought it up. She was fuckin’ obsessed with Gallagher, and she had absolutely no poker face.

Unfortunately, after the phone call ended, a whole new batch of concerns shot up. Would Mandy be okay on her own for a year? He knew she was tough, but was she tougher than Terry? This was the first time in her life Mickey wouldn’t be there to protect her if she needed him.

Sometimes all the worries made Mickey sick to his stomach, and he had burned through almost all of his commissary on smokes to try and calm his nerves. Ian had kept his mouth shut this long and Mandy could take care of herself. Surely the two of them could stay out of Terry’s path for twelve months. Hell, Terry would probably spend a good chunk of that behind bars himself. Plus, if Mickey kept his head down and wasn’t a complete idiot, he might get out sooner.

He had started to calm down by the eighth day. Someone (probably Mandy) had put some money in his commissary, and he had been able to buy a new pack of cancer sticks and even a bag of chips. He wasn’t exactly sure _why_ Mandy had put the money in, or where she even got the money, but he didn’t think too hard on it, trying to simply enjoy the boost in moral.

He was in a pretty good mood until he saw a guard waiting at his cell as he came in from outdoor rec. He felt his back stiffen instinctively and fought his natural impulse to fight.

“Milkovich, you got a visitor,” the guard said, motioning for Mickey to follow him.

Mickey’s defence lowered, and his mind fogged with confusion. Why the fuck would Mandy be visiting him? Once, when they were children, Mandy had asked Lydia to take her to visit Terry in prison, and Lydia had regaled them with stories of guards who just want to finger little girls and blow little boys. Mandy had never asked again, and, as far as Mickey knew, she had never gone to visit Terry or any of their brothers.

The guard lead him into a long room with about ten tiny booths, each with a phone and a window. The point of the room was pretty self-explanatory, but Mickey couldn’t shake the alien feeling of the entire situation. He had never been to visit his father in prison, and he had never visited any of his brothers in juvie. The entire ritual seemed strange. Something must be really wrong if Mandy had come to visit him.

He hobbled over to the empty chair and looked through the window, but the face staring back at him wasn’t his sister's.

It was Ian Gallagher.

Mickey swallowed thickly and leaned his crutches against the window before sitting down. Suddenly the visit made much more sense. Nothing was wrong – Gallagher was just acting out some weird Midnight Express fantasy. Still, Mickey did have to take a minute to bask in the relief that Ian seemed to be alive, well, and not yet murdered by Terry – a pretty good sign he had kept his moth shut.

Mickey picked up the phone receiver and looked through the little window. The red head eagerly mimicked him. A realization suddenly dawned on Mickey.

“Thanks for putting money in my commissary account,” he said into the phone, trying hard to avoid eye contact. “Runnin’ low on smokes.”

“Not me. Kash.”

Shock caused Mickey to meet Ian’s eyeline. In what fuckin’ world would that haji be doing him any favours? Was Gallagher fucking him again? The thought made Mickey’s stomach do an unpleasant flip.

“I-I told him you might still press charges,” Ian explained shyly with a shrug.

Mickey felt the corner of his mouth tug up into a half smile. He couldn’t tell if it was relief that Ian wasn’t fuckin’ the towelhead pedo anymore or if it was awe that Gallagher had the balls to blackmail someone.

“Thanks,” he responded, and forced himself to look down at the ledge in front of him to recompose himself.

“How long?” Mickey heard Ian ask seriously after another couple seconds of silence.

“I dunno. Supposed to be a year, right?” Mickey answered and directed his eyes to the fat dessert-stealing fucker sitting two booths away. “Maybe only a couple months if I don’t do anything stupid.”

“Like what?”

“Like stab that fat fuckin’ mick who keeps trying to steal my Jell-O!” Mickey said, loud enough that the boy could hear him.

“Who? me?” the boy yelled back, turning away from his own window and towards Mickey.

“Yeah!”

“Fuck you!”

Mickey stared the boy down, refusing to be the one to look away first. When he finally turned back to the window, it was Ian’s turn to be avoiding eye contact. He was looking at the corner of the window and scratching his thumb against the back of the receiver nervously.

“I-I miss you,” Ian finally said, in a small voice. He met Mickey’s eyes, then looked down, then back up. The hope in those big, green eyes was unmistakable and it made Mickey’s palms sweat. What kind of Disney fuckin’ princess movie did this kid live in?

“You say that again I’ll rip your tongue outta your head,” Mickey said sternly, trying to stare Ian down with the same authority that he had just stared down fatso.

Ian stared back with surprising resilience – much more than the paddy. Without warning, Ian’s face split into a smile, and Mickey had to look away. When he looked back, Ian had lifted his left hand and pressed the fingertips to the glass between them.

“Take your hand off the glass,” Mickey mumbled, shaking his head, and quickly looked around him to see if anyone had seen.

“Okay,” Ian complied, still smiling.

“Mandy okay?” Mickey asked, chewing on the thumb of the hand not holding his receiver.

“Yeah, she’s fine. She wanted to come visit, but-”

“Right,” Mickey snorted derisively, cutting Ian off.

Ian blinked, startled, and fell back into silence. He fidgeted slightly and Mickey’s heartbeat began to quicken. He knew that if he didn’t say something Gallagher would leave, and, for reasons he didn’t quite understand, he wasn’t ready for that to happen yet.

“Your mom still here?” Mickey asked, in his best attempt to be nonchalant. He looked around him, feigning disinterest.

Ian didn’t say anything at first, and when Mickey looked back at him, he was staring at his lap, with no trace of a smile. Mickey felt a strange urge to take a crowbar to the glass separating them.

“Yeah,” Ian answered quietly, not looking up. “She’s still here.”

 _Just talk!_ Mickey wanted to yell. _What are you thinking? What is happening? Just fuckin’ talk Gallagher!_

“She has this girlfriend and she wants to take Liam,” Ian blurted out, as if he had read Mickey’s mind.

Mickey stared at him in surprise, trying to digest the new information. Ian stared back, as if expecting Mickey to say a magic word and make his mother not a crazy lesbian who steals children.

“Your sister won’t let that happen,” Mickey finally said. Truthfully, Mickey had never said more than two words at a time to Lip and Ian’s older sister, but it would be clear to anyone who met her that her siblings were her life. Mickey could have pegged that from age three.

“Fiona moved out,” Ian mumbled, looking back down.

“Okay, then Lip won’t,” Mickey said, trying to not let his voice show how desperate he was for Ian to stop looking like he was on the edge of tears and to smile again. “He’s supposed to be like, a fuckin’ genius, right? He’s gotta be a helluva lot smarter than your nut case mother.”

Ian sighed and nodded, trying to smile. The sight of it calmed Mickey down, and for the first time in his life, he felt happy that Lip Gallagher existed.

“I think he has a plan. Turns out that Liam is actually Frank’s, so Monica can’t outright take him unless Frank forfeits parental rights.”

“How do you know he’s Frank’s?”

“Monica and her girlfriend went to have his DNA tested, and they didn’t get the results they wanted. Lip and me saw ‘em when we went to get our DNA tests,” Ian explained.

Mickey pulled a face. “Why the fuck would you do that? Monica’s not tryna take you too, is she?”

“No,” Ian laughed. “But Lip thought it could be helpful if Fiona wants to get custody of us. I think Lip is just hoping for the off chance we aren’t actually related to Frank.”

“Yeah, but you’re related to _someone_ ,” Mickey mumbled.

Ian paused and looked up at him. “What’s that mean?”

“Well, if your mom’s batshit, whoever fucked her probably isn’t any prize,” Mickey shrugged.

Ian was quiet for a minute, before a forced chuckle. “Yeah, but he’s gotta be better than Frank.”

“No,” Mickey replied, firmly. “He doesn’t. Better the fucker you know, right?”

Ian didn’t say anything, and Mickey mentally kicked himself for giving his opinion.

A loud buzz came from the speaker above them, signaling that time was up. Mickey didn’t move, trying hard to come up with something to say that wouldn’t leave Ian so desolate.

“You could…come back sometime. If you want,” Mickey said, shrugging.

Ian looked up, with a smile on his face, and Mickey’s stomach flipped again. _Overcorrection_ , he chided himself. _Over- fuckin’-correction._

“Or don’t,” Mickey added, lamely, as the other prisoners got up from their booths and walked past him and out of the long room.

“Milkovich!” the guard called.

“See ya,” Mickey said, hanging up his phone receiver quickly, more out of desperation to end the conversation than fear of the guard.

“Bye,” he saw Ian mouth, still sitting with a smile on his face.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time visiting hour was over, it was time for supper. Navigating himself on his God-forsaken crutches slowed Mickey considerably, and, by the time he reached the cafeteria, there were people at every table, dashing his hopes of eating alone and having some goddamn fuckin’ peace.

He threw his tray down on a table and sat down, trying his best to look intimidating and not like some fuckin’ invalid.

“Hey!” he heard a voice call down the table. He didn’t look up.

“Hey! Milkovich!”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fat Irish boy walking towards him, and Mickey ground his teeth together, trying to fight the urge to break his tray across the boy’s skull.

“I didn’t know you got visits,” the boy laughed placing a hand on the table next to Mickey’s tray and towering over him, in an intimidating stance.

Mickey didn’t answer, shoveling grey meat into his mouth and avoiding eye contact.

_Don’t do something stupid – you gotta get out and protect Mandy. Don’t do something stupid – you gotta get out and protect Mandy. Don’t do something stupid – you gotta get out and protect Ian._

“So was that your boyfriend?” the paddy asked, laughing loudly.

_-something stupid – you gotta-_

“The fuck you say?” Mickey asked, finally turning to face the boy.

“I said, was that your faggy boyfr- AHH!” the boy screamed.

Mickey stabbed his fork through the boy’s hand where it lay next to his tray, pinning it to the table. The boy fell to his knee, pulling at his hand, and guards began running over, yelling into walkie-talkies.

_You’re a complete idiot, Milkovich._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed it and, yay! I'm finally done season 1! Can't wait to get to season 3.
> 
> Please comment, I read them all :)


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